Woe to those who
enact evil statutes, and to those who constantly
record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the
needy of justice, and to rob the poor of my
people of their rights, in order that widows may
be their spoil, and that they may plunder the
orphans.
--Isaiah 10: 1-2

Lawyers, and laymen who deal with legal
subjects, should recognize the tell-tale
signs of judicial incompetence in any case
at any level. They are: Avoiding the
facts, because they are inconvenient.
Avoiding the law including U.S. Supreme
Court precedents, because they lead in the
wrong direction. And injecting
personal opinions into what should be a
legal opinion or decision. . . . When all
three of these errors occur in a single
case, you can be sure it’s an example of a
judge violating his/her oath of office, by
imposing personal views on the outcome.

--John Armor
--

John Armor practiced in
the US Supreme Court over 30 years, filing briefs in 18
cases. John may be reached at
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu

11-03-11
-- In a decision that is
controversial among child advocates, the Colorado Supreme Court has
ruled that attorney-client privilege is trumped, in guardianship
cases, by the duty of a child's attorney to protect his or her
client from abuse.
. . . A divided court ruled that a lawyer
acting as a guardian ad litem is supposed to help the court act in
the child's best interest even if the child doesn't want the lawyer
to reveal information, the Denver Post
reports.
. . . The case involves an
alleged sexual assault on a girl by a man acting in a caretaker
role. He was criminally charged, but the girl refused to testify.
The prosecution sought to have her guardian ad litem testify about
what she had said, but the defendant's counsel objected. A trial
judge ruled that the attorney for the girl could not testify without
her consent, which she refused.

11-02-11 --
The attorney for a lawyer arrested Monday on a theft charge
said the indictment has been devastating for his client.
. . . Freehold-based
attorney James Fagen said his client, Lynn Kenneally, 50, of
Wall, believed the case had been wrapped up three years ago,
when her former paralegal, Tara Howie, 40, of Brick, was
arrested.
. . . “All of a
sudden, this happens,’’ he said of the indictment returned
Monday, charging both Kenneally and Howie with theft by
failure to make required disposition of property received.
“It’s been devastating.’’
. . . Kenneally
currently works as a professor at Ocean County College.

11-01-11 --
A guardianship attorney and her former paralegal were
indicted on charges of theft and failing to make required
disposition of more than $800,000, Prosecutor Peter E.
Warshaw, Jr. announced.
. . . The charges
stem from a three-year investigation conducted by the
Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office into the guardianship
practice of attorney Lynn Kenneally, 50, of Wall. The
investigation revealed that Kenneally routinely received
guardianship appointments in Monmouth and Ocean Counties for
individuals (“wards”) whose interests Kenneally was supposed
to faithfully represent, such as senior citizens deemed by
judges of the Superior Court to lack the necessary mental
faculties to manage their own affairs. In her capacity as a
court-appointed guardian, Kenneally’s primary responsibility
was the honest and faithful management of her wards’
finances. However, a forensic examination of Kenneally’s law
practice revealed that, from October 2000 through December
2006,more than $800,000 of proceeds belonging to Kenneally’s
wards was diverted into or through the personal bank
accounts of Tara Howie, 40, of Brick, a former paralegal of
Kenneally’s guardianship practice.

11-01-11 -- Think your
well-tended nest egg will protect you from the depredations of old
age? Don't count on it. . . . Little has changed since the D.C.
Court of Appeals ruled almost a decade ago that Probate Judge Kaye
Christian abused her power by ordering retired economist Mollie
Orshansky, creator of the federal poverty line, removed from her
sister's care in New York and placed in a District guardianship
against her will.
. . . Even multimillionaires
cannot prevent a judge from appointing a total stranger to take
complete control of their affairs -- and banish family members who
object.
. . . That's what happened to
five-term D.C. Council member Hilda Mason and her husband, Charles,
a Harvard graduate who traced his lineage back to the Plymouth
landing. Despite Charles' $22.5 million fortune, this power couple
ended their lives in squalor.
. . . Blind, wheelchair-bound
and suffering from diabetes and skin cancer, Charles spent his last
days in dirty clothing and worn-out shoes, with fingernails so long
they curled around his fingers.
. . . "He looked like a
hobo," one witness told The Washington Examiner. His frail wife
suffered a broken collarbone when one of her "caregivers" ran her
over with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

09-20-11
-- As she crafted her closing
argument in a case against a Seattle area man who was charged with
allowing his elderly mother to literally rot to death, prosecutor
Page Ulrey struggled to find the right words. So she called
Marie-Therese Connolly, a former Department of Justice lawyer who
knew just what to say:
. . . The role of caregiver
comes with a legal and moral obligation. And even though the son had
said his 84-year-old mother, Ruby Wise, had wanted to die at home
with dignity, not in a nursing home, there was nothing dignified
about the way she spent her final days — emaciated at 72 pounds,
covered in sores so deep that bone was visible through rotted
tissue, in a bed stained with urine, feces and blood. Last year,
Chris Wise was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.
. . .
On Tuesday, Connolly, who for
years has been trying to place elder abuse in the national
spotlight, is being awarded a MacArthur Fellowship,
the $500,000, “no strings attached,” so-called “genius” grant given
annually to a couple dozen artists, thinkers, social advocates and
historians.

09-11-11
-- Earlier this year, I
agreed to serve as conservator, under N.J.S.A. 3B:13-A-1 and Rule
4:86-11, for a 95-year-old woman who lives at home, with assistance.
As is my custom in guardianship and conservatorship matters, I try
to maintain a banking relationship with the bank where the ward or
conservatee had maintained his or her accounts. When I opened the
conservatorship account, the bank officer admitted that he had never
done one before, and this would be a learning experience for him.
Things have proceeded well so far. When I went to the bank last
week, it was obvious the bank officer had been waiting for me to
come in. He asked if he could speak with me. Without naming names,
he discussed a customer of the bank whose banking habits have
suddenly changed. Regular checks in large amounts are being written
to “cash” and given to a person to whom he is not related. The bank
officer asked me: “How does a person get a conservator? I think this
customer really needs one.” Banks are often the first to notice
questionable financial activity. I told him how to contact Adult
Protective Services, and an investigation ensued. APS is now taking
appropriate action. . . . As early as 1985, elder abuse was
called a “national disgrace” by the U.S. House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on
Aging. More than a quarter-century later, it continues to be a
national disgrace. Until recently, however, no one has quantified
the cost.

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08-18-11
-- Tragically, Gary Harvey of
Horsehead, NY fell down the basement stairs in January of 2006 and
received a traumatic head injury. Since that time, he has either
been in a nursing home or in the hospital and is under the
guardianship of the county. Ironically, the county, who claims to be
looking out for their ward’s best interest, was involved in a
so-called ethics committee decision that Gary Harvey should be
starved and dehydrated to death. The judge over-ruled the call for
execution of an innocent man, though a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)
remains in effect. Sara Harvey, Gary’s wife, is desperately fighting
to get him home. One can only wonder how much he knows of what is
going on around him. The following could be what he is thinking as
he lays alone in that room, so isolated from the world he knew and
the wife and friends he so loves.***

08-21-11
-- These silver-haired
sleuths don't go to crime scenes or carry guns. Some don't even
leave their beds. But Florida's growing army of "Senior Sleuths" and
other elderly volunteers increasingly are working behind the scenes
to go after people preying on their own.
. . . The Seniors vs. Crime
project, which is expanding in South Florida, has thousands of
volunteers who do the unglamorous work of investigating complaints
from elderly consumers.
. . . Most are retirees who
spend their time on the phone in one of the program's 40 offices
around the state. On more interesting days, they'll go undercover as
shoppers to stores suspected of overcharging customers.
. . . They sometimes do get
more exciting assignments, just not that often.
. . . Take, for example, the
83-year-old Senior Sleuth who took part in a covert operation in the
Tampa area in 2001 that led to the arrest of a water-purification
system salesman on charges of grand theft.
. . . A hidden camera
captured the salesman using scare tactics in the sales pitch.

05-25-11 --
A former guardian accused of living lavishly while stealing hundreds
of thousands from his elderly and disabled clients will ask the
court to appoint an attorney to defend him because he can't afford a
lawyer. . . . Jeffrey M. Schend, 44, was charged this month in
Outagamie County Court with six felony counts of theft and one
misdemeanor count after he was unable to account for about $500,000
in transactions from clients' accounts. . . . Schend's company, JMS
Guardianship Services, was hired by Outagamie County in 2004 to
serve as a guardian for clients who were unable to handle their
affairs. Outagamie County appointed an investigator in the fall to
review the accounts of Schend's business, JMS Guardianship Services,
and those of his clients after receiving complaints that clients'
bills weren't being paid.

05-06-11 -- A Manhattan
surrogate has rejected a bid by the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society, and other
animal welfare groups to ensure that organizations that help dogs
receive funds from a charitable trust created by Leona Helmsley, the
late real estate billionaire. . . . Ms. Helmsley, who infamously
left $12 million to her dog, Trouble, upon her death in 2007, said
in a 2004 mission statement for the trust that she wanted it used
for "1) purposes related to the provision or care of dogs and 2)
such other charitable activities as the Trustees shall determine."
But in February 2009, the Surrogate's Court found that the mission
statement did not place any legal restrictions on what donations
could be made from the trust, which is reportedly estimated at $5
billion to $8 billion. . . . About six months later, the ASPCA and
the Humane Society, along with Maddie's Fund, another pet rescue
operation, filed a motion asking the court to vacate its earlier
order and allow them to intervene. D.E.L.T.A. Rescue filed a
separate motion, saying that the other groups' motion was not
representative of rescue groups, an important segment of the animal
welfare community.

03-30-11
-- Agents from the Attorney
General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Elder Abuse Unit
have filed criminal charges against a Fulton County husband and wife
accused of financially victimizing family members for their own
personal gain. . . . Acting Attorney General Bill Ryan identified
the defendants as William Craig Carnell, age 48, and Melissa “Missi”
Ann Carnell, age 50, both of 5809 Pleasant Grove Road, Warfordsburg.
. . . Ryan said that between 2005 and 2008 William and Melissa
Carnell served as caregivers for William’s elderly mother, Margaret
“Peggy” Carnell, along with William’s brother, John, who is deaf,
speech impaired and requires the use of a wheelchair. . . . “This
was a long-running and systematic effort to extract money from
family members, rather than provide the care and security they
deserved,” Ryan said. “To victimize an older or disabled person is
always wrong, but to target loved ones for this kind of financial
abuse is reprehensible.” . . . According to the criminal complaint,
William and Melissa engaged in a conspiracy to misdirect and misuse
funds that were intended to care for Peggy and John Carnell
including, the use of Peggy’s home and surrounding land to secure a
mortgage, which generated $110,000 in proceeds allegedly used by
William and Melissa for personal expenses; opening credit card
accounts in Peggy’s name, unknown to her, which were used to
generate approximately $55,000 in charges; unauthorized withdrawals
from Peggy’s savings account totaling $28,456; the use of $14,940 in
proceeds from a certificate of deposit owned by Peggy; and the
diversion of $19,952 in Social Security disability checks intended
for John.

The
case of Terri Ann Hauge, charged with bilking 10 vulnerable adults,
shows the flaws in selecting and monitoring conservators.

By James
Eli Shiffer, Minneapolis Star Tribune

03-16-11
-- Terri Ann Hauge's career
as a lawyer came to an abrupt end in 1995 when state officials
suspended her license for mishandling cases and lying to her
clients. . . . But that didn't end Hauge's work in the courthouse.
In a professional comeback that raises questions about how the state
oversees court-appointed caretakers, Hauge and her business partner
went on to amass the state's fourth-largest portfolio of work as
guardians and conservators. . . . Though Hauge never sought
reinstatement as a lawyer, she and her company, Estate Resources,
were given control over the lives and finances of more than 200
vulnerable adults, despite complaints of neglect and mismanagement
that go back as far as 2000, court records show.

12-06-10
--Judges in Maricopa County Probate Court appear to be cracking down on the
kinds of legal fees that have been allowed to deplete the life
savings of some individuals placed under the court's protection.
. . . Judges in the past month
have proposed tough limits on what attorneys and private fiduciaries
can charge and have asked lawyers to justify their bills and to
waive hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The heightened
scrutiny signals a change in how the court monitors and reviews
cases. . . . The most
dramatic example came during a Nov. 18 hearing when Judge Robert
Myers asked several attorneys in one case to voluntarily give up
nearly $300,000 in legal fees. They obliged.

11-24-10
-- When he's finished serving
time for two out-of-state bank robberies, a suspended local lawyer
will return to Erie County for more jail time. . . . Michael W.
Rickard II, 42, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony grand larceny
charges lodged against him for embezzling nearly $63,000 from two
former local clients. . . . Rickard admitted stealing $10,240 he was
holding for a 91-year-old mentally incapacitated woman who lives in
a nursing home. He had been appointed her legal guardian. He also
took $52,662 from another client's estate. . . . State Supreme Court
Justice Russell P. Buscaglia told Rickard he would likely sentence
him to a one-year jail term after Rickard finishes his federal
prison term of 37 months in a West Virginia prison.

11-12-10
-- A Park Slope nursing home
has been slapped with new charges that it held a frail Brooklyn
judge prisoner by blocking his mail and visitors. . . . The
allegations are the latest twist in a case launched this year by the
family of Judge John Phillips against Prospect Park Residence -
where Phillips lived for eight months until he died at age 83 in
2008. . . . "The whole thing was surreal," said John O'Hara, a
lawyer for Phillips' family and also a longtime friend. "It looked
like a nice place, but it was a death house." . . . Court papers
filed Wednesday said nursing home officials misled Phillips' family
and attorneys about the services they could provide for the diabetic
ex-judge. . . . O'Hara "recently discovered that [Prospect Park
Residence] was not in fact an assisted-living facility as they
claimed to be," the lawsuit charged. . . . Phillips allegedly didn't
get diabetic meals and regular insulin shots, which caused his
health to plummet. . . . "Judge Phillips was confined against his
will for approximately eight months by the defendants at their
facility ... denying [him] proper medical care," the suit charged.

10-31-10 --
Abuse of elderly Americans by their court-appointed guardians is
growing into a multibillion-dollar business, and a new oversight
report suggests the government is not doing enough to prevent the
crimes. . . . A Government Accountability Office
study, the results of which were released last week, examined
hundreds of cases of alleged abuse across dozens of states and found
several instances where guardians with questionable backgrounds
sailed through the screening process. In other cases, the courts did
not monitor guardians after they were appointed, "allowing the abuse
of vulnerable seniors and their assets to continue."

10-29-10
-- The sons of the late
concert promoter Bill Graham claim the executor of his estate and
his estate-planning attorneys "conspired to secretly transfer
possession, control and title to all of the archives from Bill
Graham's estate to Bill Graham's concert promoting company, Bill
Graham Enterprises," of which the executor was trustee. The archive
contains at least 10 of Graham's scrapbooks and 100 complete sets of
original concert posters, according to the federal complaint.
********The Graham brothers say executor Nicholas Clainos, and
attorneys Richard Greene and Linda McHall "assumed their work on the
Estate in November 1991, and appeared to be operating the Estate in
a professional and appropriate manner ... Plaintiffs had no reason
to suspect during these years that Clainos and the Greene firm were
filing incomplete inventories, hiding assets or planning to
wrongfully convert valuable intellectual property for the personal
benefit and profit of Clainos. In fact, Clainos and the Greene firm
repeatedly assured plaintiffs that they were doing everything they
could to be transparent and fair to all beneficiaries." . . .
However, the complaint continues: "Unbeknownst to plaintiffs,
Clainos and the Greene firm had entered into an unlawful agreement
to conceal the true facts about the archives, so that Clainos would
be able to enrich himself. To this end, Clainos and the Greene firm
arranged to surreptitiously transfer valuable intellectual and
personal property from the estate to BGE."

With elderly abuse rising,
government and courts consider stricter guidelines.

By Randy Tucker, Middletown
Journal Staff Writer

10-28-10 -- A scathing
government report released Wednesday blames lax screening and
oversight of court-appointed guardians for hundreds of allegations
of financial exploitation and abuse of the elderly. . . . The report
to the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging focused on 20 cases from
15 states and the District of Columbia in which guardians stole or
improperly obtained more than $5.4 million from 158 victims who in
some cases were also neglected and abused. . . . In one case, a
former cab driver was convicted of fraud after obtaining
guardianship of an unrelated 87-year-old man with Alzheimer’s
disease, from whom he embezzled more than $640,000. In Ohio, “the
potential for such abuse is very real, but there is no uniform
structure in place to even try to prevent that,” said Michael
Kirkman, executive director of the Ohio Legal Rights Service. . . .
Governments and courts are considering stricter guidelines, however.
The Ohio Supreme Court is considering a proposal to establish
statewide certification and conduct standards for guardians. . . .
Meanwhile, Congress next year is once again expected to consider the
Elder Justice Act, first proposed in 2005 by Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-Utah), which would deal directly with such issues as protection
for seniors under guardianship.

10-05-10
--A former Grundy, Va.,
lawyer pleaded guilty Monday to stealing more than $175,000 from a
late couple’s family trust, and stiffing the federal government out
of $250,000 in income taxes.
. . . David Eugene Cecil, 59,
was convicted of mail fraud, money laundering and tax evasion in
U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Va., according to a Department of
Justice news release. . . .
The Virginia State Bar revoked
his license last year, a month after he was charged with
embezzlement by the Virginia State Police, according to State Bar
documents. . . . Cecil was hired in February 2007 to
administer the $2 million estate of a Buchanan County doctor named
Robert Baxter and his wife, Nancy. In 2007, he met with the Baxter’s
daughters and quoted a one-time fee of 2 percent of the estate,
$40,000, to liquidate the trusts and distribute the money to the
family, the documents show. .
. . Instead, he wrote himself
checks in excess of $175,000, according to the release.

09-15-10
-- A disbarred attorney who
lives in Long Valley was arraigned Tuesday on charges of stealing
$265,552 between 2005 and 2008 from a deceased woman's estate. . . .
Pieter J. DeJong, 62, was indicted by a Morris County grand jury on
Sept. 3 on three theft-related charges that allege he stole between
February 2005 and June 2008 money that belonged to the estate of
Jane Davis.

09-10-10
-- The town's probate judge
is being investigated for misconduct after a decision last year to
create two trusts that essentially gave away a farm to three area
churches, against the will of its owner. . . . The Council on
Probate Judicial Conduct is expected to decide later this month
whether there was judicial misconduct on the part of Probate Judge
Bryan Meccariello. The creation of the trusts meant the will of an
elderly woman was ignored and her farm, appraised at about $1.5
million, was transferred to three area churches.

09-08-10 --A $44 million contingency fee sought by
Graubard Miller for its work on behalf of the widow of a New York
real estate magnate should be cut to less than $16 million,
according to a
court referee's report.
. . . If confirmed, Graubard Miller's award, with interest, could
climb to about $25 million. But the sum is less than what the firm
would have earned under the original 40 percent contingency
arrangement Graubard had with its longtime client, Alice Lawrence,
whose estate claimed the fee was unconscionable. . . . Howard A.
Levine, a former New York Court of Appeals judge who served as
referee in the case, also recommended dismissing claims by Mrs.
Lawrence's estate and her children seeking to invalidate on ethics
grounds more than $5 million in gifts she made to three Graubard
Miller lawyers in 1998.Levine said Mrs. Lawrence fully understood
that she was making the gifts and was free from undue influence. The
referee also sided with Graubard in allowing it to keep $18 million
in fees it earned in hourly billings prior to switching to the
contingency arrangement.

09-07-10
-- An appeal court today gave
an inventor's estate the green light to sue Katten Muchin Rosenman
for conspiracy to commit fraud and a host of other claims. . . . The
Second District panel said the evidence was "minimally adequate" to
proceed, reversing the trial court's findings. . . . The case arose
from a falling out between two shareholders in a small company
called Motion Graphix Inc. After the founding shareholder's death,
his heirs assert, the other shareholder conspired with Katten Muchin
attorneys to acquire Motion Graphix assets worth $8 million to $12
million for just $5,000. / The case is
Favila v. Katten Muchin Rosenman
, B215096.

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08-30-10 -- A 104-year-old
heiress lavished "millions" of dollars in gifts on the family of her
lawyer, who is now under investigation for his handling of her
finances as she lives out her days in a Manhattan hospital, an
ex-employee told The Post. . . . Huguette Clark once bought at
auction a dollhouse worth well more than $10,000 for lawyer Wallace
Bock's grand daughter, and gave him a check for about $1.5 mil lion
to build a "bomb shel ter" for a settlement in Israel where his
daughter and her family live, two people said yesterday. . . .
Bock's co-workers were so amused by his reliance on the copper
heiress that they once gave the estate lawyer a purported signed
copy of her last will and testament -- which named him as a big
beneficiary -- at the firm's holiday party, said Bock's former
paralegal, Cynthia Garcia.

08-11-10 -- Nine new charges
of theft have been leveled at a West Dundee attorney who was already
accused of taking more than $100,000 from an elderly widowed
client's estate. . . . A Kane County grand jury recently indicted
William C. Chesbrough, 57, on theft charges involving nine
individuals or couples who authorities said have reported that the
lawyer stole money that they'd given to a real estate developer who,
in turn, entrusted Chesbrough with the funds. . . . The new counts
join felony charges of theft and financial exploitation of an
elderly person, which were filed against Chesbrough last year in
Kane County, where he awaits trial.

07-22-10
-- For nearly five years
after Bertha McInnes died on Sept. 12, 1998, attorney Lynn Morse
worked on her $461,500 estate, filing an appearance in Rockingham
County Probate Court within 10 days of her death. . . . Again and
again, Morse sought delays and promised to meet deadlines but
didn't. When the executrix, Ruth Ann Mize, called him, he never
responded, she says. After Mize replaced Morse with another lawyer
in mid-2003, he didn't transfer the file to the new attorney for
months. Morse also claimed to have filed tax returns for the estate
when, in fact, he had not, recounts the New Hampshire Supreme Court
in an attorney discipline
opinion
provided by Leagle.

07-20-10
-- A former Ashland attorney
was sentenced Monday to three years in a Rhode Island prison for
embezzling money from his clients. . . . Originally charged with
four counts of felony embezzlement, William Craven, 67, pleaded no
contest in January to a single count of felony embezzlement and
three misdemeanor counts in January. He was sentenced Monday in
Rhode Island Superior Court to three years in the Adult Correctional
Institute, two years of home confinement and 10 years of probation.
. . . Craven was accused of embezzling from various clients between
1999 and 2004, while he lived in Rhode Island. A plea agreement
downgraded three charges in exchange for his no-contest plea in the
case in which he embezzled $400,000 from the family estate of
Maurice Longo. Longo, who died in 1992, was a house painter who
scrimped and saved to create a better life for his heirs, said Bruce
Algier, Longo's ex-son-in-law.

07-12-10
-- A probate judge who
provides training to other judges on ethics, Bryan F. Meccariello, now
faces misconduct charges arising from his approval to change the
will of a woman without bothering to tell the man who was due to
inherit much of her estate. . . . This is the same probate system
that tells you that all my complaints about probate misconduct are
the rants of an extremist. One of their own ethics "experts" has
been nabbed abusing the system. In this case, Meccariello approved
the change in a will at a hearing nobody was informed of.

New
York Court of Appeals cited rulings in Florida, Ohio, Maryland and
other states abandoning strict privity as a bar to malpractice
actions against estate-planning attorneys

Joel
Stashenko, New York Law Journal

06-21-10
-- An estate can bring a
legal malpractice claim against an attorney for negligence in the
planning of the estate, the New York Court of Appeals decided
unanimously Thursday. . . . Previous appellate rulings, including
the one reversed by the court in
Estate of Saul Schneider v. Finmann,
104, had invoked strict privity to block estate planning malpractice
suits against attorneys brought by the personal representatives of
estates, their beneficiaries or other third parties. . . . But the
court relaxed that rule, holding that estates, although not
beneficiaries and other third parties, should be allowed to bring
such suits. Judge Theodore T. Jones Jr. wrote for the 7-0 court that
any other course would be unfair.

Judge orders Paul Weiss and Lowenstein Sandler to pay fees and costs
incurred by Perelman's former father-in-law; a hearing has been set
for July 8 to determine the amount

Mark
Fass, New York Law Journal

06-16-10
-- A New Jersey judge has
sanctioned two firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and
Lowenstein Sandler, for pursuing a "frivolous" and "ridiculous"
legal claim on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman against his
85-year-old ex-father-in-law. . . . Perelman had alleged that Robert
Cohen, the father of Perelman's ex-wife, Claudia Cohen, who died in
2007, had promised Ms. Cohen that she would receive one half of Mr.
Cohen's estate. . . . Superior Court Judge Ellen L. Koblitz ruled
that Perelman's attorneys should have known that the claim was
unsupportable. . . . "No competent attorney could have missed the
frivolous nature of this promise claim once the unhelpful
testamentary documents were received," Koblitz said in ordering the
sanctions last Wednesday. "There was no legal or factual basis for
the plaintiffs to proceed with their amended complaint given the
evidence they had and the state of the law in New Jersey."

05-28-10
-- A Nashville songwriter
declared mentally disabled in October 2007 and committed to a
psychiatric ward has regained legal control of his affairs after an
expensive battle. . . . Songwriter Danny Tate didn’t have a lawyer
and he wasn’t in court when Judge Randy Kennedy first found him
disabled because of his drug addiction in an emergency hearing, the
Associated Press
reports. Kennedy ruled for Tate on Monday after seeing proof that he
had been drug-free for nine months. . . . Tate admits he was
addicted to crack cocaine but says he still was able to manage his
affairs, the story says. His brother David, who had petitioned the
court and was appointed guardian, maintains he saved Danny Tate’s
life. . . . Danny Tate says the legal battle to regain his rights
drained most of his savings, including $600,000 in a money market
account. He had to pay legal fees both for himself and for the
opposing side.

05-26-10
-- An attorney in Pasadena,
Calif., has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from his
clients' estates, according to prosecutors. . . . Oscar Cruz Parra,
67, a probate attorney who was arrested in March at his home in San
Dimas, Calif., agreed in a plea deal to serve five years in state
prison and pay $441,000 in restitution to five former clients. A
sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 15. . . . On Friday, Parra
pleaded guilty to four counts of embezzlement, according to the Los
Angeles County, Calif., district attorney's office. He stole the
money beginning in 2000, filing false court papers to cover up his
actions.

03-30-10
-- An ex-partner at a trust
and estates boutique claims his former firm overbilled him for work
on his and his mother's estate in order to recoup the termination
payouts it made after forcing him to resign in 2005. . . . William
Roos IV, who had been a partner at Reynolds Richards before it
merged in 2007 with Anderson Kill & Olick, in September sued
Anderson Kill in Manhattan Supreme Court. When the firm
counterclaimed
for the legal fees stemming from the estate work, Roos moved to
transfer the part of the case involving his mother's estate to the
Surrogate's Court. . . . Last week Manhattan Justice Doris
Ling-Cohan rejected Roos' request in the interest of "judicial
economy." Neither side should be troubled with having to prove or
defend their case in two different forums, she wrote in
Roos v. Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C.,
112439/2009.

On March 24, 2010, the supreme court publicly reprimanded Jeffrey T.
Roethe, Edgerton, for misconduct he engaged in while handling two
informal-probate matters. The court also ordered Roethe to pay the
$24,630.53 cost of the disciplinary proceeding. Disciplinary
Proceedings Against Roethe, 2010 WI 19. . . . By having
copersonal representatives sign a fee agreement that provided for a
fee based on a percentage of an estate’s gross value, Roethe
violated Wis. Stat. section 851.40(2)(e), which controls billing in
probate matters, and SCR 20:8.4(f), which states that it is
professional misconduct for a lawyer to violate a statute regulating
the conduct of lawyers. . . . By permitting and ratifying his
assistant’s conduct in notarizing two signatures on a sworn
affidavit, when the two persons were out of Wisconsin and did not
appear before the assistant on the date she attested that the
signatures were subscribed and sworn to before her, Roethe violated
former SCR 20:5.3(c) (effective before June 30, 2007), which stated
that a lawyer was responsible for an assistant’s conduct that the
lawyer knew about or ratified if the conduct engaged in would have
been professional misconduct if engaged in by the lawyer. Roethe
also violated former SCR 20:5.3(c) when he permitted and ratified
his assistant’s conduct in notarizing a person’s signature on an
application for informal administration and on a proof of heirship,
when the person did not appear before the assistant on the date she
attested his signatures were subscribed and sworn to before her, and
when Roethe then permitted the notarized documents to be filed with
a court. . . . A referee found, and the court agreed, that the OLR
failed to meet its burden of proof with respect to two other counts.
. . . Roethe was publicly reprimanded in 2000 for violating
conflict-of-interest rules by representing a city, a developer, and
a farmer in related real estate transactions and for making
misrepresentations to the OLR’s predecessor, the Board of Attorneys
Professional Responsibility.

03-24-10
-- Refusing to "mechanically"
apply New York's
Estates, Powers and Trusts Law,
a Brooklyn appellate panel has held that a caretaker who secretly
married a dying retiree with dementia may not claim an elective
share of his estate. . . . The unanimous Appellate Division, 2nd
Department, panel ruled that defendant Nidia Colon, who married
Howard Thomas, 72, while the daughter who served as his primary
caregiver was on vacation, "technically had a legal right to an
elective share as a surviving spouse" under the EPTL. . . . When a
marriage is annulled after a person's death on the grounds of mental
incapacity, such as the case here, a "strict reading" of the law
requires that the decedent's spouse be treated as a "surviving
spouse" with a right of election against the decedent's estate,
Presiding Justice A. Gail Prudenti wrote for the unanimous panel in
Campbell v. Thomas,
08-02246. . . . However, the panel refused to enforce that right in
this case, citing the equitable principle that courts must not allow
a person to profit from her own wrongdoing.

03-08-10
-- Disbarred Erie lawyer J.
Gregory Moore goes before a federal judge today to be sentenced for
stealing about $200,000 from estates in his care. . . . He'll
present a stack of letters from community leaders who believe health
problems led Moore to mismanage his accounts. They want leniency for
their friend. . . . Moore's lawyer, William Weichler, argues that
Moore -- a Vietnam War veteran, Sunday school teacher and community
volunteer -- deserves probation. . . . But in a forceful document
filed Friday in U.S. District Court, the U.S. Attorney's Office said
Moore's "own canceled checks" establish no case for special
treatment. . . . Authorities have long remained silent on what
"personal and business" expenses Moore covered with funds stolen
from his clients.

03-05-10
-- Judge Eric Brown got an
earful - and dozens of e-mails - when he asked the public's opinion
on rules to protect the addled, aged and disabled from busy or
unscrupulous attorney guardians. . . . Some examples: / • Don't
require us to visit each ward personally at least once every three
months, some attorneys pleaded with the Franklin County Probate
Court judge. Many attorneys have only a handful of wards, but others
have a large staff to work with hundreds. . . .
That rule stays, Brown said.
. . . • Don't require those alleged to be incompetent to open their
homes to prospective guardians, who lack legal authority to visit,
others said. . . . Got a point, Brown decided. He told guardians to
ask to visit. . . . • Put
as Rule No. 1:
"Take no actions which are not in the best interests of the ward," a
Texas judge suggested. . . . Brown agreed that would cover
everything. An early paragraph now reads, "In all matters, the
guardian shall always consider and act in the best interest of the
ward." . . . In December, Brown made national news by asking for
comments on standards for attorney guardians. He would be the first
local judge in the country to adopt the rules, according to the
National Guardianship Association. . . . Other states have embraced
guardian guidelines, and Brown hopes his standards will help the
Ohio Supreme Court as it works to do the same. . . . "These
standards will improve the quality of work by the (attorney)
guardians," Brown said. "They're going to be better trained. They're
going to be more personally involved. They're going to be held to
higher standards with regards to ethics and standards."

02-12-10 --
Jamie Veara, a locally prominent attorney who serves as Truro’s town
counsel, among other things, has found himself in some hot water as
a result of questionable dealings with a Harwichport man’s estate. .
. . Veara has been ordered by a Plymouth County Probate and Family
Court judge to pay back more than $118,000 to the estate of the late
Kenneth E. Simon, to whom he acted as temporary guardian for 83 days
in 2005. . . . The decision, which was featured in a front-page
article in the Feb. 1 issue of Lawyer’s Weekly, is the result of a
trial that took place over 11 days in late 2008 and early 2009. It
was issued by Associate Justice Stephen C. Steinberg on Jan. 14. . .
. In all, the judge ordered that Veara and Boston attorney Gerald
Nissenbaum return $328,771 of the $500,000 they billed the estate in
the short time they were involved. Veara works for the Orleans law
firm of Zisson & Veara, a firm with nine attorneys which also serves
as counsel for the town of Brewster.

02-10-10
-- A Watertown man with power
of attorney for a woman in her 90s stole more than $232,000 from
her, Watertown police charged Tuesday. . . . William D. O'Brien, 70,
of 335 S. Rutland St., was arrested on a felony charge of
second-degree grand larceny. He was released without bail in
Watertown City Court to await grand jury action. . . . A police
document filed in court alleges an audit shows that between March
2005 and March 28, 2008, the day of her death, Mr. O'Brien wrote
checks on the account of Sophia G. Eaton for his personal use.

01-04-10 --
A Massachusetts probate judge recently ordered prominent Boston
family lawyer
Gerald Nissenbaum and another attorney to refund a
client's estate nearly $329,000 in excess legal fees. . . . Plymouth
County Probate and Family Court Judge Stephen Steinberg's Jan. 14
order gave the attorneys 30 days to make the payments. . . . The
Barnstable County probate case, In re Guardianship of Kenneth E.
Simon, ended up on Steinberg's docket after the Massachusetts
Appeals Court recused Judge Robert Scandurra of the Barnstable
Probate and Family Court in December 2007. The decision does not
address the basis for that recusal. . . . According to Steinberg's
order, Simon's guardian, E. James Veara of Dennis, Mass.-based
Zisson & Veara, and Nissenbaum sought about $500,000 in
attorney and guardian fees for an 83-day guardianship of Simon,
which ended with Simon's death on Nov. 2, 2005.

01-28-10 --
Is it excessive for lawyers to collect more than $800,000 in fees
and costs from an estate valued at $1.2 million? Noting that would
add up to 67 percent of the estate's total value, the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court made no bones about its opinion on
the fee request, saying that it represented "unnecessary lawyering."
. . . That does not mean that the lawyers from K&L Gates in Boston who made the request will go
penniless. In an opinion issued yesterday, In the Matter of the Estate of Bartley J. King, the
SJC sent the case back to the trial judge to decide a "fair and
reasonable" fee award. But the court did not let go of the matter
without first letting the litigants know its distaste for the fees
requested.

11-6-09
-- A former Brooklyn, N.Y.,
lawyer has pleaded guilty to fleecing millions of dollars from
guardianship accounts he oversaw for incapacitated seniors and
children. . . .
Steven T. Rondos
and his law firm, Raia & Rondos, were
indicted in January on money laundering and grand larceny charges
for stealing more than $4 million. On Wednesday, Rondos pleaded
guilty to all 19 counts of the indictment, said his lawyer, Franklin
A. Rothman.

11-4-09
-- Keishma Smallwood was
abandoned by a drug-addicted mother 30 years ago. Blind and
brain-damaged since birth, Smallwood, 34, was taken in by a
grandmotherly neighbor in 2000 when her longtime foster mother died.
. . . Alice Dailyda was an 89-year-old widow addled by dementia when
she died in 2005 in the midst of a nasty family dispute over her
care. . . . The Queens women lived just miles apart - Smallwood in
Jamaica, Dailyda in Woodhaven - but their lives never intersected
until now. . . . Their families are joined in a battle to prove that
a court-appointed Queens attorney entrusted to oversee the women's
assets swindled them out of everything. . . . At the center of the
dispute is a Queens real estate firm controlled by two convicted bid
riggers, which sold the Smallwood and Dailyda homes to new buyers,
scoring a combined profit of $171,000, court papers claim.

10-30-09 --
A California appellate court on Wednesday referred a Pacifica,
Calif., lawyer to the
State Bar
for investigation, disturbed that she might have manipulated a
now-deceased elderly client into marrying her and changing his trust
documents for her benefit. . . . "We find the circumstances of this
case to be troubling," Justice Robert Dondero wrote in an
unpublished ruling for San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal.
"In particular, an inference may be drawn that appellant, a licensed
attorney, knowingly made a false representation on a recorded
instrument in an attempt to take advantage of a client in order to
secure a portion of his estate for herself." . . . But Linda
Lowney's lawyer, Brian Beckwith of Palo Alto, Calif., called the
appeals court's action "really inappropriate," saying his client's a
"very truthful person" whose marriage to octogenarian Thor Tollefsen
was based on love, not mercenary motives.

10-29-09
-- A Rockville Centre
attorney has been charged with stealing up to $200,000 from a
deceased client's estate, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen
Rice said yesterday. . . . Joel Post, 58, was set to be arraigned on
a second-degree grand larceny charge in District Court in Hempstead
yesterday afternoon for allegedly stealing between $50,000 and
$200,000 from the estate of a New York man who died in France in
1993. The man's identity was not released, but according to
prosecutors, Mr. Post was appointed co-administrator to the man's
estate in 1997 and subsequently set up an account to pay out taxes.

10-25-09 --
While Brooke Astor’s son and a lawyer who worked on her
estate face prison time after a jury convicted them
of defrauding and stealing from her, experts say the verdict may
be felt by others: namely, the people who make wills and the
lawyers who help them. . . . The trial has certainly provided
talking points for estate planning experts across the country;
it has already been the topic at panels of trusts and estates
lawyers in New York and other states. To them, the Astor trial
is noteworthy not only because of the famous name, but also
because the actions of trusts and estates lawyers were parsed in
a criminal courtroom, something that usually happens in civil
proceedings.

10-21-09
-- An 83-year-old neighbor of
former Broward Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin contends he and his
family exploited her frail state and swindled the millionaire out of
several hundred thousand dollars in real estate, furniture,
electronics and school tuition. . . . In an unusual legal twist,
Barbara Kasler now is trying to prevent Seidlin from complaining she
was abused or exploited by others to law enforcement or the state
Department of Children and Families, which already has cleared him
of an elder exploitation allegation. . . . Broward Circuit Judge
Thomas Lynch convened an emergency hearing last week on Kasler’s
motion to enjoin Seidlin, his wife, his in-laws and their attorneys
from lodging abuse complaints involving her after DCF and Fort
Lauderdale police twice responded to tips that she was receiving
inadequate medical and nutritional care.

10-21-09 --
A medical malpractice lawyer at Fulbright & Jaworski wasn’t entitled
to a portion of the estate of her late companion, Henry J.N. Taub, a
Houston area judge has found. . . . The judge’s findings of fact
left the lawyer, Mary-Ellen Conway,
without the $150,000 in annual payments that she had sought from the
estate, the Houston Chronicle
reports. The court published the findings on the day the case
settled “for its nuisance value,” according to the lawyer for Taub’s
children, quoted in a press release.

10-19-09
--
The Ohio Supreme Court on Oct. 14 fined a so-called trust mill and
its affiliate company nearly $6.4 million for the unlicensed
practice of law in the biggest penalty of its kind in the state's
history. . . . The ruling ended seven years of legal wrangling
between the Columbus Bar Association
and American Family Prepaid Legal Corp. and its affiliated Heritage
Marketing and Insurance Services Inc., both former companies based
in California and owned by the father-and-son team of Jeffrey and
Stanley Norman. . . . In addition to the penalty, the three-judge
Ohio Supreme Court panel barred the companies from operating in the
state, where they allegedly duped thousands of senior citizens into
buying living trusts and insurance products that they often didn't
need and couldn't afford.

10-9-09
-- By all accounts, Joel J.
Seidemann, the veteran litigator who closed the case against Brooke
Astor's son Anthony D. Marshall and lawyer Francis X. Morrissey, is
pugnacious, unrelenting and highly effective.

And
Seidemann's take-no-prisoners advocacy finally paid off in what was
one of the most high-profile cases of his 27-year career. Thursday,
on its 12th day of deliberations, the jury
delivered guilty verdicts on 15 counts of a 17-count indictment.
. . . Emotion is the key to getting convictions, Seidemann said in
an interview before the verdict. "You can prove guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt, but if no one was hurt the jury will just say 'so
what,'" he said. "It's easier to prove a murder than a shoplifting."
. . . To steel the jury to convict in the Astor case, Seidemann
launched a barrage of attacks on the two
defendants' actions, motives and credibility
during a summation that lasted more than two days.

10-9-09
-- Anthony Marshall
repeatedly took advantage the failing mental abilities of his
elderly mother, Brooke Astor, diverting millions from the legendary
New York socialite's estate, a jury
decided yesterday.
. . . But he did so under the influence of advisers including a
lawyer who also was convicted, Francis Morrissey Jr., a
former holdout juror
who eventually voted to convict tells
Bloomberg.
. . . “Nothing of this sort happened until Morrissey entered the
scene," Judi DeMarco, 46, a lawyer who works for Bloomberg, tells
the news agency. “Maybe he was duped into doing a lot of things and
led astray by Morrissey,” she says of Marshall, who is 85.

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By Sally
Kestin, Peter Franceschina and John Maines South Florida Sun
Sentinel

9-27-09
-- Florida seniors and
disabled adults too frail to live on their own have been beaten,
neglected and robbed by caregivers with criminal records. . . . A
cancer patient at a Pompano Beach assisted living facility watched
helplessly from bed as a nurse's aide with a record for theft rifled
through her handbag and stole $165. . . . "What are you doing with
my bag?" a police report quoted her as saying. "You have no right.
Put it down." . . . A video camera caught an aide at a North Miami
Beach group home for the disabled shoving a cerebral palsy patient
face-first to the floor, busting her lip. The aide had previously
pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and never should have been
working there. . . . More than 3,500 people with criminal records —
including rape, robbery and murder — have been allowed to work with
the elderly, disabled and infirm through exemptions granted by the
state the past two decades, a Sun Sentinel investigation found.
Hundreds more slipped through because employers failed to check
their backgrounds or kept them on the job despite their criminal
past. . . . In Palm Beach County, a woman with pending forgery
charges got a job at a nursing home, where she assaulted a patient.

9-25-09
-- A Logan County judge must
dip into his court's budget to pay thousands of dollars in attorney
fees to a woman who appealed his decision to restrict access to
court records. . . . In what is apparently the first ruling of its
kind, the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday upheld a lower-court decision
that the judge must pay the woman's legal fees because he violated
the state's public-records law. . . . The justices' unanimous
decision upheld an appellate court ruling against Logan County
Family Court Judge Michael A. Brady of Bellefontaine. . . . The
appeals court ordered Brady to pay $3,250 in legal fees incurred by
Rosanna Miller after it found the judge improperly restricted access
to a copy of a medical assessment in a guardianship case involving
her father.

9-14-09
-- Former attorney Martin
Kirby Watson virtually groveled in court last year as he explained
how he drained thousands of dollars from two estates he was supposed
to be protecting. . . . He said he was "thoroughly embarrassed by my
behavior." The St. Petersburg man said his actions were "about as
low as you can go." He said he would repay every dime because "once
you screw up, you've got to step up." . . . lnstead, he stepped out.
. . . Watson, 49, failed to show up for court in March, five months
after making those comments. He slipped out of the country — just
before a trial on two counts of grand theft that could have put him
in prison for 60 years. . . . It meant that victims, who saw as much
as $500,000 drained from the estates of their family members, did
not get to have the day in court they wanted. . . . At least, not
yet. . . . As it turns out, the case against Watson didn't disappear
as easily as he did.

8-27-09
-- Agents from the Attorney
General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation have filed charges
against a former Harrisburg attorney and an Allentown businessman.
They are accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the estates
and accounts of senior citizens and crafting bogus investment
materials used to sell stock to seniors. . . . The accused are
William Trickett Smith, 72, 419 Susan Road, Harrisburg, and Jerome
A. Kindrachuk, 64, 3535 Fox Run Drive, Allentown. . . . Attorney
General Corbett says Smith allegedly diverted money from the sale of
a 90-year old Harrisburg woman's home. The proceeds from that
$80,000 sale were intended to support the woman's medical care at a
nursing home, but instead were allegedly used by Smith to pay his
own personal expenses. . . . Additionally, Smith is accused of using
false information and untrue statements to sell $5,000 in stock to a
73-year old Harrisburg woman. The stock was for a business created
by Smith and Kindrachuk and marketed using exaggerated or untrue
investment materials.

8-22-09
-- They’re not criminals.
They’ve broken no laws. But they’re being held against their will by
the State of Texas. Why? It’s a tragic story about what can happen
when you are alone in the world and lose control of your rights,
your money, and your ability to complain. . . . Jean and Michael
Kidd never imagined their retirement would play out like this. “I
feel like I am not in America,” said Michael Kidd. “I can’t believe
I have been hi-jacked off the street, virtually from the hospital,
and imprisoned,” Kidd told FOX 4. . . . Michael Kidd and his wife
Jean have been living out of a tiny room for months. They have lost
control of their money, their home, even their car. They say they’ve
been robbed of their dignity and their voice. And who do they say is
responsible? The State of Texas. . . . “It is a shock to our
system,” says Kidd. “We are still kind of in a state of shock,” Kidd
told Reporter Becky Oliver. . . . Michael Kidd worked as an engineer
at KDFW for 23 years. He retired in 2001 with a pension, retirement
account, and social security. Last month, he called the station for
help. The Kidds have no children or relatives nearby. In November
Michael fell and broke his hip. He was taken to a Plano hospital and
into surgery. After a few days, the hospital called the state Adult
Protective Services to report Jean had been in the waiting room for
days and wasn’t eating. What happened next is a complicated, legal
tale told in hundreds of pages of documents filed with the Collin
County Probate Court.

8-21-09
-- Among Ron Perelman's four
ex-wives, the late Claudia Cohen holds a special place in his heart.
After Cohen died in 2007 of ovarian cancer, Perelman donated $20
million to the University of Pennsylvania and had a building named
after the onetime gossip columnist. He also initiated a
lawsuit
on her behalf. In April 2008, acting as Cohen's executor, Perelman
(and his and Claudia's daughter, Samantha) sued Claudia's father,
Robert Cohen, and her brother, James Cohen, for allegedly cheating
Claudia's estate out of hundreds of millions of dollars. But the
lawsuit has been a flop. On Wednesday, Bergen County, N.J.Superior
Court Judge Ellen Koblitz
dismissed all the remaining claims
(pdf) against Claudia's father and brother. . . . Perelman, who was
represented by Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
and
Lowenstein Sandler,
had alleged that Robert Cohen, the former CEO and chairman of the
Hudson Group, had verbally promised Claudia half of his and his
wife's estate. Perelman also alleged that James Cohen, the current
CEO of the Hudson Group, had used "undue influence" to frustrate
that promise by having more than $500 million in assets transferred
to him.

8-20-09
-- A Marietta attorney who
bilked hundreds of retirees out of more than $40 million was
sentenced today to 10-plus years in federal prison. . . . Robert P.
Copeland, 47, was also ordered to pay restitution of $16.7 million.
He plead guilty in April to wire fraud after investigators uncovered
his real estate investment scheme. . . . “Many victims lost their
life savings and retirements as a result of this massive and
long-running scam, perpetrated by a lawyer who purposefully
solicited retirees,” said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias.

7-1-09 --
In a
landmark opinion that recognizes a new category of lawsuits,
the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Federal
Nursing Home Reform Amendments give residents of county-run nursing
homes the right to bring civil rights claims under Section 1983 to
challenge the quality of their treatment. . . . "The language used
throughout the FNHRA is explicitly and unambiguously
rights-creating," U.S. Circuit Judge Richard L. Nygaard wrote in his
23-page opinion in Grammar v. John J. Kane Regional Centers.
. . . "These provisions make clear that nursing homes must provide a
basic level of service and care for residents and Medicaid
patients," Nygaard wrote in an opinion joined by U.S. Circuit Judge
D. Brooks Smith.

6-29-09
--
A poverty lawyer turned to a newspaper columnist after her parents
discovered their “travel protection” plan wouldn’t give them a
cruise refund, despite her father’s heart attack and later death. .
. . Catherine Bendor’s parents had agreed to pay for a cruise
costing nearly $10,000, and paid an extra $978 for travel
protection, Bendor told the New York Times’
“Haggler” columnist. Mailings sent after the couple purchased the
travel protection plan said they would not forfeit the cost of the
cruise if they had to cancel for a covered medical reason; the fine
print warned that any trip “refund” would be in the form of a credit
for a future trip. . . . Bendor, a Harvard law grad and a lawyer
with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, told the
Haggler her mother wanted her money back. The columnist helped
Bendor resolve the matter—details weren’t released. But the column
questions whether such protection plans can be misleading—and also
looks at the specifics of the sales tactics used in the case of
Bendor’s parents.

6-17-09
-- A half-priced downtown
condo on the Intracoastal. . . . A $50,000 piece of land. . . . More
than $500,000 in cash that was was used to pay off mortgage, buy a
second home in Pennsylvania, and pay tuition at an expensive private
school. . . . Family jewelry, a Dell computer, and a widescreen TV.
. . . These are just some of the things Judge Larry Seidlin obtained
from elderly widow Barbara Kasler, according to a civil suit filed
by the widown's attorney yesterday. The Fort Lauderdale
lawyer representing Kasler, Robert Bissonette, filed the suit
yesterday claiming that "rank greed" led Seidlin to pilfer the
widow's assets and belongings. . . . The suit alleges that Seidlin exploited Kasler after
her second son, Frank Gardner, died, leaving her virtually alone.
That's when Seidlin pounced, according to the lawsuit.

6-16-09
--
There appears to be little love lost between two prominent New York
attorneys who are pitted against each other as witnesses in an
ongoing Manhattan courtroom battle over $60 million or so of a
high-society estate. . . . The verbal jousting between the two lofty
estate practitioners, G. Warren Whitaker, 58, and Henry Christensen
III, 64, is one of the main events at an ongoing criminal trial, as
the two witnesses figuratively yank at each other's ties in lawyerly
fashion, reports the City Room blog of the New
York Times. . . . Christensen, for instance, admitted during his
seven days of testimony in the New York Supreme Court case that he
had once described Whitaker as a "second-rate lawyer," the Times
notes. . . . Asked what he had said about Whitaker, “Mr. Christensen
blushed and pulled back as if he was about to deliver an appalling
four letter word,” recounts an earlier New York Times article about
the Astor trial, as a previous ABAJournal.com post notes.
“He said he did not recall, but eventually chipped in, ‘It has been
said that I called Mr. Whitaker a second-rate lawyer.’ ”

Many targeted by very people claiming to care.DeKalb creates task
force to combat rise in crime against seniors.

By Bill
Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

6-14-09
-- At 92, unsteady on his feet
and hard of hearing, Harold Williams needed someone to care for him.
. . . After returning to his Decatur home from a stay in a rehab
center, Williams answered an ad placed by Rukhsana Burton’s
caregiver company, signed her up for $14 an hour and had her come by
six days a week. . . . Burton, 29, took care of Williams’ household
needs, ran him on errands and, only a couple of months into the job,
swindled the former Defense Department industrial engineer out of a
large chunk of his life’s savings. By the time Burton was arrested,
she had forged Williams’ name on more than two dozen checks totaling
more than $200,000. . . . Williams is like many retirees who want to
spend their golden years in the homes they’ve lived in for decades
instead of moving into an institutionalized setting. Not only is it
more comfortable, it’s also more affordable. But it also puts
elderly residents in vulnerable positions, with their caregivers
often having the run of the house, often with access to their
client’s finances and the mail. . . . Williams fell prey to what
DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming calls an “opportunist”
—- a caregiver who comes into the home or a family relative who
lives there and takes advantage of an elderly victim.

OHIO

Lawyer pleads guilty to mail fraud

By Dan
Horn • enquirer.com

6-12-09
-- Beverly W. Hersh wanted
most of her $12 million fortune to go to charities and other worthy
causes after her death in 2005. . . . But prosecutors say her lawyer
gave about $9 million to himself, friends and relatives. . . .
Cincinnati lawyer Robert L. Schwartz pleaded guilty Thursday to
federal charges of mail fraud and filing a false income tax return
in connection with his handling of Hersh's estate. . . . Schwartz,
69, was supposed to move Hersh's money into trusts that would be
used to benefit worthy causes, but federal prosecutors say he used
most of the money for personal expenditures and gifts to friends and
associates. . . . The fraud charge is tied to his failure to give
$2.5 million to Hadassah Hospital in Israel, as Hersh had instructed
him to do. Schwartz also gave away large sums of money from a $6.3
million "discretionary trust" that he controlled, prosecutors say. .
. . Hadassah Hospital received about $5,000 and other charities
about $50,000. Prosecutors say Schwartz informed the hospital it
would receive money from Hersh's estate, but he never said how much.

6-12-09
-- After a long-running battle
over his handling of an elderly widow’s case, Spokane attorney Steve
Eugster has narrowly avoided disbarment. . . . The state Supreme
Court ruled 5-4 Thursday that Eugster should instead be suspended
from practicing law for 18 months. He will also have to pay $13,500
to the now-deceased woman’s estate. . . . “Eugster breached his duty
to maintain his client’s confidences, used confidences to take
action directly contrary to his client’s interests, and created a
nightmare for his client who had to spend $13,500 defending a
petition to declare her incompetent,” Justice Tom Chambers wrote for
the majority. “However, Eugster’s misconduct was the first in a
long career.” . . . The four-justice minority called for a
harsher penalty. . . . “The only conclusion that can be drawn … is
that Eugster should be disbarred,” Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote. . .
. Shawn Newman, an Olympia attorney representing Eugster,
characterized the ruling as a win. “Once the bar unanimously
recommends disbarment, it is almost unprecedented to get that turned
around,” he said.

5-19-09
--
Outside the courtroom where socialite Brooke Astor’s son and former
attorney are on trial for conspiracy and scheming to defraud her
estate, a witness stopped to talk to a columnist for the New York
Post. . . . Betsy Gotbaum, New York City’s public advocate and Mrs.
Astor’s close friend, had just testified to Mrs. Astor’s mental
decline, which prosecutors say left her unable to understand the
changes to her will that benefited her son, Anthony Marshall, 84.
Whatever his culpability, Ms. Gotbaum said, “She
wouldn’t want him to go to jail.” . . . It’s a sentiment that
experts often hear in cases of alleged financial exploitation. One
reason the crime proves difficult to detect and prosecute is that so
often “the abuser is someone the elder has loved and trusted,” said
Thomas Hafemeister, a University of Virginia law professor studying financial elder
abuse. Who wants to see a loved one — even one who may be ripping
you off — in handcuffs? . . . As with other forms of elder abuse,
basic facts about financial exploitation — even how widely it occurs
and to whom — remain elusive. Experts think all varieties are
substantially underreported, and financial manipulation, unlike
broken bones or bruises, can happen almost invisibly. . . . But in
elder abuse cases substantiated by adult protective agencies in 11
states, the most common abusers weren’t strangers, but sons and
daughters, the National Center on Elder Abuse has found (PDF).
A recent report on financial abuse from the Metlife Mature Market
Institute (PDF) also points to
family, along with “trusted professionals,” as the primary
predators.

5-6-09 --
A former Queens, N.Y., lawyer who admitted stealing $130,000 from
her client escrow account to finance a gambling addiction was
sentenced last week by New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grosso
to three to nine years in prison. . . . Arelia Taveras ran a general
practice before being disbarred in 2007. In two videotaped
statements, including an apology she posted on YouTube,
Taveras admitted taking the money from her escrow account to pay
for, among other things, marathon gambling sprees in Atlantic City.

4-26-09
-- A disbarred former lawyer
faces nearly five years in prison when he is sentenced in on Monday
on charges that he bilked elderly clients out of hundreds of
thousands of dollars as their health and finances withered away. . .
. Reginald “Reggie” Rogers was like “a son” to several elderly
clients — cleaning their homes, cooking for them, singing for them
to lift their spirits, and spending weekends and evenings with them.
Prosecutors allege it was all an act — that his only interest was
getting his hands on his clients’ money. . . . He has been convicted
of emptying out his clients’ bank accounts, spending the money on
expensive clothes and airline tickets. Prosecutors John Griffith and
Diane Lucas are asking for a 57-month sentence. . . . He was
arrested shortly after the niece of one of his victims complained to
the D.C. Bar Counsel, the city’s top legal ethics enforcer.

4-26-09
-- The guardian for an elderly
woman has filed a lawsuit against a prominent Milwaukee law firm and
a suspended lawyer, claiming the lawyer stole more than $600,000
from her. . . . Supportive Community Services, the legal guardian
for Dorothy G. Phinney, filed the lawsuit against Quarles & Brady
and Jeffrey Elverman, a lawyer who was with the firm when the
alleged theft occurred between December 2001 and September 2004. . .
. According to the lawsuit, Phinney hired Elverman in 2000 while he
worked at Quarles & Brady. . . . Christopher Stawski, a lawyer
representing Phinney, said the money was discovered missing in 2008,
shortly after a Milwaukee County judge found Phinney incompetent and
appointed Supportive Community Services as her guardian. Elverman,
Stawski said, fought the appointment, saying that she had given him
her power of attorney.

Robert Copeland pleaded guilty this week; his lawyer said he 'didn't
want to do this anymore'

R. Robin
McDonald, Fulton County Daily Report

4-24-09
-- For five years, a Marietta, Ga., attorney who specialized
in elder law arranged community workshops where he sought investors
for a bogus financial scheme that would siphon more than $40 million
from his unsuspecting clientele, according to a federal prosecutor.
. . . When the scheme collapsed earlier this year and investors
began complaining to local police and the FBI, attorney Robert P.
Copeland confessed to federal prosecutors in Atlanta, said his
Decatur lawyer, Marcia G. Shein. . . . Shein said that Copeland
surrendered to authorities because, "He didn't want to do this any
more. He needed to resolve the problem." . . . In U.S. District
Court on Monday, Copeland pleaded guilty to a criminal information
(charges filed either prior to or in lieu of a grand jury
indictment) charging him with a single count of wire fraud. He is
free on $100,000 unsecured bond pending his July 10 sentencing.

4-24-09
--
A lawyer facing criminal charges in connection with the handling of
socialite Brooke Astor's estate planning can be questioned about his
two-year suspension in the mid-1990s if he testifies at his upcoming
trial, the presiding judge has ruled. . . . Attorney Francis X.
Morrissey and Ms. Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, have been accused
of taking advantage of the doyenne's diminished mental capacity to
redirect millions of dollars to Mr. Marshall that had been
bequeathed to charity. Opening statements in the case are set for
Monday. . . . Acting Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley ruled in
People v. Morrissey,
6044/07, that prosecutors could question Mr. Morrissey about several
matters related to the suspension, including whether he had lied
under oath at the disciplinary proceeding.

4-6-09 --
As the economy worsens, incidences of elder financial abuse are
reportedly on the rise. The
elderly are particularly vulnerable to scams or to financial abuse
by family members in need of money. . . . A recent study found that up
to one million older Americans may be targeted yearly. Family
members and caregivers are the culprits in 55 percent of cases,
although financial losses are higher with investment fraud scams. .
. . While it is impossible to guarantee that an elderly loved one is
not the victim of financial abuse, there are some steps you can take
to reduce the chances. One option is to have more than one family
member involved in caring for the loved one. You can also encourage
the elder to get involved in community activities to ensure he or
she has a wide range of support. Using direct deposit as much as
possible is also helpful. And of course you should always screen
caregivers carefully and verify references.

3-13-09
--St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com)
-- A new documentary about the life and death of Terri Schiavo
presents facts that the mainstream media distorted. Schiavo was
killed in a painful starvation and dehydration euthanasia death over
the course of nearly two weeks when her former husband won a court
order to kill her. . . . Though the media maintained the disabled
woman was in a persistent vegetative state experts say she was in a
minimally conscious state and her family indicated she repeatedly
interacted with them. . . . Now, Franklin Springs Family Media has
put out a newly-released documentary called The Terri Schiavo Story
that it says provides previously unexplored facts of the case
through in-depth interviews with participants in the saga. . . . The
documentary is hosted by author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, who
became personally involved in the case in 2005 and is herself
disabled because of a diving accident. . . . So what did the
mainstream media overlook? Several things, according to the film's
producer and director Ken Carpenter. . . . "I think most people
thought Terri was in a vegetative state with no prospects of
improving," he told LifeNews.com. "The truth is, the doctors
believed Terri was a candidate for rehabilitation, but her husband
withheld that treatment."

3-12-09
-- A Boca Raton lawyer, who
has claimed he is fighting to protect his longtime client's desire
to leave the bulk of his estimated $50 million fortune to the poor
children of Panama, has been smacked by a Palm Beach County judge. .
. . Attorney Richard Lehman has been ordered to repay $1 million to
the Florida estate of Wilson Charles
Lucom, an eccentric Palm Beach millionaire who moved to Panama in
the last years of his life. . . . Calling Lehman a "covetous
opportunist," Circuit Judge John Phillips said Lehman misused
$655,000 that was part of Lucom's Florida estate to get his hands on
tens of millions in Panama. In an 11-page ruling, Phillips ordered
Lehman to repay the money along with the $390,000 that was spent
tracking how the money was spent. . . . He also ordered Lehman to
pay the fees of lawyers who represented Lucom's Panamanian widow and
her children. . . . Lehman disputed Phillips' findings. "I never put
a dollar in my pocket and I spent $1 million of my own money
defending the estate," said Lehman, vowing to appeal.

2-19-09
-- A lawyer scheduled to go on
trial on charges of tampering with records and obstruction of
justice entered a plea agreement and was convicted of two
misdemeanor counts. . . . Edward Bunstine, a former Chillicothe law
director, pleaded no contest today to two counts of disorderly
conduct. He was convicted and fined $300 by visiting Judge James
Luse in Ross County Common Pleas Court. . . . Paul Scarsella, chief
of the special-prosecutions section of the Ohio attorney general's
office, said a spokeswoman said the plea agreement spared some
elderly theft victims the stress of testifying in the case.

2-11-09
--
Obtaining regular reports from Steven T. Rondos, the Brooklyn
attorney accused of fleecing guardianship accounts of $4 million,
was like "pulling teeth," said one of the court-appointed examiners
charged with monitoring Rondos' performance. . . . Albert E.
Spencer, a Manhattan attorney, inherited two cases from prior court
examiners in early 2006. He said that Rondos had not provided the
required reports for 2004, 2005 and 2006. . . . After Rondos' indictment last month, the
Office of Court Administration acknowledged that court examiners who
monitored Rondos' accounts should have detected sooner at least some
of the alleged thefts that occurred between 2001 and 2008. . . . At
least 16 examiners had signed off on the accounts that gave rise to
the investigation of Rondos.

1-30-09
-- The former Brooklyn judge who appointed Steven T. Rondos to oversee at least seven of the
guardianship accounts Rondos is charged with fleecing expressed
dismay at the news in a phone interview Thursday. . . . "I must say
I am disappointed -- I just thought he was really one of the good
guys," said former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Leonard Scholnick,
who was reached at his Florida
home. But, he added, "nothing shocks me anymore." . . . Rondos, who
is booked under the alias Stavras Rontoyiannis, is at the Bergen
County Jail in New Jersey awaiting extradition. . . . A spokesman
for the Office of Court Administration acknowledged Thursday that
there had been some "inherent flaws" in the system for overseeing
the work of guardians but said those flaws had now been corrected.

Law
firm has been indicted for money laundering, grand larceny and a
scheme to defraud

Vesselin
Mitev, New York Law Journal

1-29-09
-- A Brooklyn lawyer has been charged with stealing more than $4 million between 2001
and 2008 from guardianship bank accounts he supervised for
incapacitated elderly people and children. . . . Steven T. Rondos,
44, and his law firm, Raia & Rondos in Brooklyn, have been indicted for
money laundering, grand larceny, a scheme to defraud and offering a
false instrument for filing, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M.
Morgenthau said in a statement. . . . Rondos, who was born in Canada but is a U.S. citizen, was arrested in his Ridgewood, N.J., home early
Wednesday morning and taken to the Bergen County, N.J., jail. He was
listed as a "fugitive from justice" on the jail's Web site. . . . A
spokesman for the New York court system acknowledged Wednesday that
some of the thefts "should have been caught earlier" and reported
that "a handful" of examiners assigned to monitor the accounts of
guardians had been asked to resign.

1-29-09
--This PPI research report
explores the problem of power of attorney abuse and how state
legislatures can protect vulnerable adults. Powers of attorney are
legal documents used by individuals to empower someone else to act
on their behalf. As the population ages, the power of attorney will
be used increasingly to appoint trusted family members or others to
handle financial decision-making. But it also can be a ‘license to
steal,’ because it grants broad powers with little oversight. The
report shows that a large majority of states lack protections
against abuse. The Uniform Power of Attorney Act, a model law, lays
the groundwork for keeping seniors safe from abuse, while allowing
them to plan for the future. (88 pages)

1-25-09
-- Marilyn Jacob is living in
an Alzheimer's facility in Seminole, Fla. Her brother, Robert
Howard, died in late 2006. Though mentally handicapped, he had a
maintenance job with the Department of Veterans Affairs and left
Jacob and other heirs a nearly $1 million estate. . . . "I know that
Robert was somewhat incapable of writing a will because he had been
on disability for over 60 years and was mentally disabled," said
nephew Eric Jacob, of Florida. "I knew it would be easy for an
attorney or guardian to embezzle his estate." . . . Enter Richard
McQuillan, a former Jackson attorney who was Howard's legal guardian
for 25 years. . . . "My dad assured me that Mr. McQuillan was honest
and he even cried on the phone about the death of Robert," Eric
Jacob said in an e-mail to a reporter. McQuillan then asked to open
the estate so that he could pay funeral expenses, Jacob said. . . .
McQuillan also cried on Dec. 31 when he admitted to Jackson County
Probate Judge Diane Rappleye during a court hearing that he
plundered the estate of more than $900,000 in a few months in early
2007.

1-25-09 --
A judge jailed a Jackson attorney Wednesday after he admitted
plundering a $1 million estate. . . . Court documents indicate
Richard McQuillan wrote numerous checks to himself from the estate
of Robert T. Howard ranging up to $200,000 each. . . . Probate Judge
Diane Rappleye ordered McQuillan to account for the missing money in
a show-cause hearing Wednesday. . . . Sobbing and apologetic,
McQuillan said he stole more than $900,000 and juggled money among a
number of disgruntled clients in 2007. . . . ``By May 2007 these
funds had almost disintegrated because of my criminal conduct,''
McQuillan said during the hearing. He apologized to Rappleye, other
attorneys involved in the case, and courtroom staff. . . . ``I don't
need an attorney appointed,'' he said. ``I need to pay the piper.''
. . . Rappleye found him in contempt of court and sentenced him to
a 90-day jail term. . . . A city police officer went to the jail
Wednesday afternoon to question McQuillan. He could face
embezzlement charges with penalties up to 20 years in prison.

1-22-09
-- Patricia J. English is very
much alive, but that hasn't stopped her kids from squabbling over
who gets the 78-year-old Scottsdale woman's house when she passes
away. . . . In a Maricopa County Superior Court complaint that could
break legal ground in Arizona, Robert Jaeger says his brothers and
sisters persuaded their mom to revise her will to cut him out. He is
seeking more than $1 million in punitive and compensatory damages,
far more than English's home is worth. . . . Legal experts and
advocates for the elderly say the case could further erode the
rights of older Americans, who face increasing challenges to their
independence. . . . "It's rampant, and it's usually done by sibling
rivalries," said Carole Herman, president and founder of an advocacy
group known as Foundation Aiding the Elderly. "It's all about the
money." . . . Kathy Cubit, director of advocacy at the
Philadelphia-based Center for the Rights of and Interests of the
Elderly, agreed that such quarrels are common.

Courtney Fultz is accused of taking $77,000 from a CD and trying to
put the 86-year-old's condo in her name.

By Pat
Pheifer, Star Tribune

1-13-09
-- -- Courtney Fultz's
grandmother had already given Fultz her house in West St. Paul free
and clear, according to court documents. Then the 33-year-old woman
allegedly tried to get her grandmother's condo put in her name and
took more than $77,000 from her grandmother's certificate of
deposit. . . . Fultz is being prosecuted by the RamseyCounty attorney's office's new
elder abuse unit. She was charged Tuesday with felony theft by
swindle. She is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 19 and could not
be reached Tuesday to comment. . . . According to the criminal
complaint: . . . St. Paul police were contacted in July by Dakota
County Social Services about the financial exploitation of a
vulnerable adult identified only as E.T.K. The 86-year-old woman
suffers from memory loss and dementia.

12-15-06 -- On December 4, a Seattle Times
investigation revealed that lawyers often use the guardianship
system for their financial benefit to the detriment of America's
most vulnerable consumers.

A
guardianship begins when an individual petitions the court to show
that someone else is unable to care for themselves. Courts often
appoint professional guardian lawyers, who charge fees as high as
$95 an hour, to make decisions on behalf of the incapacitated
individual.

In one
case, Karen Weed suffered brain damage in a car accident and
subsequently received a cash settlement. For help managing the
money, her family was referred to a lawyer specializing in
guardianship law. The lawyer recommended the guardianship company
Ethicare, but when the family became unhappy with the company’s
actions, the attorney represented Ethicare in the case rather than
the Weeds, and then charged the family for his services.

According to the Seattle Times, conflicts of interest like this
regularly occur in guardianship cases. In most areas of law, lawyers
specialize in representing one side or the other. Prosecutors, for
example, never represent criminal defendants. But only a small
circle of lawyers practice in the guardianship field and many
represent both the guardianship companies as well as the people
subject to those companies’ control.

“Attorney abuses and unchecked conflicts of interest are the
guardianship system’s dirty little secret,” stated HALT Associate
Counsel Suzanne M. Blonder. “Tens of thousands of guardianship cases
in this country are removed from public record so there’s no way to
monitor the lawyers entrusted with making critical financial and
life style decisions for our most defenseless citizens.”

The
Karen Weed file, for instance, has been stamped secret, and the
Seattle Times found that judges and court commissioners in
Washington State alone have sealed the entire file in at least 398
guardianship cases since 1990.

HALT has
worked before to fix the broken guardianship system that allows
attorneys to take advantage of conflicts of interest and profit from
being paid multiple times for the same work. In 2004, HALT submitted
comments to the District of Columbia Superior Court urging the court
to fix its standards for attorneys working in guardianships,
following an investigation by the Washington Post.

“Meaningful reforms in the guardianship system are long-overdue in
jurisdictions across the country,” stated Blonder. “Courts need to
strengthen oversight of attorney guardians and records need to be
available for public scrutiny.”

NASGA is not just another place to discuss personal
horror stories of which there are too many, or offer
token solace and empty promises. This Association
will ACT to put an end to this insidious new crime
by using the power of the press, the power of the
political system and the power of the PEOPLE to do
exactly what the title's name says.

OUR
MISSION . . . The National Organization to End Guardianship
Abuse (NOTEGA) is a non-profit organization committed to
ending the abuse of Elderly and Dependant Adult through
education outreach and by creating a single voice calling
for National and State Reforms to protect America’s
vulnerable citizens in Guardianships and Conservatorships.

The Elder Justice Coalition is a national
membership organization dedicated to eliminating
elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in America.
The Coalition works to fulfill its mission through
education, advocacy, and support of federal
initiatives to address this crisis.

Shining Light on the Dark Side of Estate Management

An industry exists
in which lawyers, accountants and other
unethical participants, sometimes with
complicity from probate courts, can
separate any of us from our property
when certain (not that unusual)
circumstances occur. These circumstances
can be orchestrated and lead to an
Involuntary Redistribution of Assets
(IRA). This often occurs with wills,
trusts, guardianships or other
probate-related situations. With the
transfer of wealth that is getting ready
to occur in the next 20 or so years,
Involuntary Redistri

bution of
Assets cases will likely skyrocket.

Definitions

Guardian
A person lawfully invested with the power, and charged with the
duty, of taking care of the person, who, for defect of age,
understanding, or self-control, is considered incapable of
administering his own affairs. One who legally has responsibility
for the care and management of the person, or the estate, or both,
of a child during its minority. -Black's Law Dictionary-

Ad litem

From the Latin, meaning "for the lawsuit" -- that is, for purposes
of the current legal action. A guardian ad litem is a
guardian appointed by the court to act on behalf of a
minor or
incompetent person.